Lost Again

Winnipeg is a typical prairie city in Western Canada to grow up in.

Back in nineteen eighty eight, I landed a job working for my younger sister (my boss).

It all started out simple, pick up the phone and dial the number provided by the telesales office. Raise money for the charity in question and get paid $3.50 per hour plus bonuses for a high rate of return.

Between then and nineteen ninety four, I was involved with every aspect of the fundraising businesses functions and eventually was promoted to a call centre manager in charge of multimillion dollar budgets for local charities.

Suddenly, a mega call centre was planned and there were too many of us in management. Many lost their jobs during that period of transition.

Life was a circus of opportunities lost and gained. In my case, it became literally a circus!

Our company offered me an introductory position as the assistant to the General Manager of events in Eastern Canada starting in May of nineteen ninety four.

Back in the day, in the beginning, I used to get lost all the time! Being the “Operations Manager” for the Shrine Circus in Eastern Canada traveling from location to location for sixteen concurrent weeks each year starting (June thru September annually). Everything was new!

It seems like only yesterday that my CEO gave me the break of my life with this job away from the stresses of telesales fundraising management. Little did I know that I was to be groomed to take over potentially the entire operation for the company as General Manager.

Suddenly, in a blur and a flurry, it’s now the fall of two thousand and ten!

Believe it. “I’m lost, again”. I mutter to myself. Such a rookie thing to do.

Sure, leave it to me to get lost yet again! No matter how hard I try to plan, this always tends to happen. I have stopped driving and went to purchase a road map of the local area to try and figure out just where I went wrong. At least the show was not depending upon my directional skills.

Each year, at the end of the tour I would file away my work files along with their respective maps, attendance figures, profit/loss reports and supplies. These things would be brought forward the next year as the operation files for the planning phase.

Well, this explains it, hind sight is always so very clear.

At least mistakes in direction can be corrected without much in the way of penalties save the loss of time. Time can’t ever be replaced once spent. At least I always travelled to the next location early to plan for the unforeseen.

Traveling on the road with different tour productions over a seventeen year period had been rewarding for the most part. Always putting the needs of others before ones own is a special calling. Unfortunately, my health deteriorated and the client made a formal complaint against my job performance forcing my former employer not to renew my contract at the time (November third, two thousand and ten was officially my last day with the firm).

Skipping forward, it was not until August of two thousand and twelve that I became so ill that I wandered away from home without keys or ID and was found by police and mobile crisis on the streets with no recollection of who I was nor where I lived at the time. I learned this while in hospital when I finally came to myself with the help of loads of medication!

After a couple of months in hospital the gave me a diagnosis, I am manic with a bipolar disorder.

Each time I look upon a map reminds me of strategic tour planning for events past along with their associations.

Well I often dream that I am back on the road with event tours living out of suitcases. Being currently unemployed gives a person plenty of time to dream about the past. Not to mention a healthy respect for past opportunities.

Life is full of irony, similarities and contradictions.

Wish me luck.

I’ve lost enough time in pursuit of other people’s dreams. Now for my own.

“On With The Show!”